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Special Mass Combat Rules
Home>Tabletop Games>System-Agnostic>Mass Combat System These are advanced rules to expand the basic ruleset. What Is It Good For? (Victory and Defeat Conditions) Most battles are fought for a purpose. At the start of the battle, the game master assigns each side a list of victory and defeat conditions. A side that achieves all of its victory conditions wins the battle, and a side that meets one defeat condition loses. Beyond this, the last side left in a battle usually wins by default. Example victory conditions include: * Defeat all enemies. * Defeat (Unit X). * Place (Unit X) at (Point Y). * Have any unit at (Point X) for (Number Y) turns. * Have any unit at (Point X) succeed in (Number Y) Standard Tradecraft checks. * Claim (Point X). * Go (Number X) turns without losing. Defeat conditions are usually the inverses of victory conditions, such as: * Have all of your units defeated. * Allow (Unit X) to be defeated. * Allow (Point X) to fall into enemy hands. * Fail to win in (Number X) turns. Every Rocket Fired (Organizations) Wars tend to absorb resources that could be spent on other things. If you are using the organization rules available elsewhere (address), you might apply any or all the following: * Only organizations with the Military axis can take part in mass combat. * In addition to needing to do a line trace, a unit risks becoming Out Of Supply if a turn passes without the owner of its Supply Depot spending a point of Funds on it. * Before tracing lines of supply, each side’s player may remove that side’s own lines from any number of Points; removals are simultaneous. After tracing lines of supply, roll one die for each Point that has one. Each 1 rolled adds one point of random Trouble. * Every use of the Research or Recruitment abilities costs one point each of Funds and either Focus or Personnel. * Organizations can have Assets that are specifically designed for mass combat, for instance a Recruitment Center Asset that periodically generates new units or a Missile Silo Asset that allows for attacks against all units within a Point. * A side can only take (Military Staff) total actions per mass-combat turn, and may spend one point of Focus and one organization action to gain (one die) additional mass-combat actions. Any unit with no actions is Out Of Command; and Out Of Command units take one action each, that does not count toward the total. Orders are still subject to per-unit limitations. * The Spy action, in place of a question, allows a side to know the orders and location of a target unit for the rest of the organization turn, and automatically targets that unit with a Quality=Scope Recon action each turn. Units targeted by a successful Spy action must have their orders written before any other units. Where Are You? (Intelligence) One of the big problems in warfare is the fog of war: the simple fact that the enemy is not obligated to tell you where they are or what they are doing. Using these rules, guessing what an enemy side is doing becomes much harder. At the start of each battle, and at the end of each turn, each Point gains the Fog Of War Special for all sides. During step 2-3, units that are neither Out Of Command nor suffering from Delayed Orders eliminate the Special for their own side. Before deciding to use this rule, keep in mind that it is probably difficult to use. The game master must keep track of all information available to all sides, and parcel it out carefully as well as make sure that NPC sides do not act on information they should not have. Beyond this, the Stealth and Detect abilities can cause problems. There are a few suggestions for handling this: Some virtual tabletop software allows the game master to easily control what information is shown to the players. Since a virtual tabletop set up with the rules can run them without game-master input, the game master may also choose to conceal information from xieself. When playing in person, the game master may set up different maps for each side, hidden from one another by a screen; the game master will also keep a “master” map. To help control the information known to NPC sides, the game master might recruit a “co-game-master” to control those sides. VIP (Commander-Linked Abilities) In the current rules, skilled commanders grant no particular benefit beyond allowing a unit to use their own skills and taking part in Decapitate duels. In a more complex system, commanders are responsible for the unit’s Quiver. Each Quiver ability is assigned to one commander. If that commander is eliminated by the Decapitate action or other events, the ability is lost. In addition, instead of taking two actions per turn, a unit takes a number of actions per turn equal to its number of leaders; a unit that somehow has no leaders is Out Of Command and takes one action per turn in addition to the usual effects of having no commanders. In addition, allowing this allows for some new Quiver abilities, such as: Skilled Commander The unit’s leader is particularly talented. Benefit (Active): For the rest of the turn, all allied units in the same Point gain a Moderate bonus to Tactics and Discipline. Cost: 5. Difficult Movement Not all forms of transportation are created equal. Under these rules, each movement type has rules associated with it. A few examples: * Ground: Units with the Phase movement type may also take Ground Paths. * Air: The Narrow Special never applies to a unit with the Air movement type as long as the Point has at least one unblocked Air Path. * Sea: Units with at least one move on a Sea Path subtract one at the end of each turn. * Submarine: Units with the Submarine movement type have Evade: Submarine against any unit without the Sea or Phase movement type. * Rail: Only one unit at a time may move along the same Rail Path, and a unit moving along a Rail Path can only take Move and Scout actions (but can take them multiple times per turn). Any unit with Anti-Ground has Anti-Rail as well. * Road: Any unit with Anti-Ground also has Anti-Road. * Phase: All units with the Phase movement type automatically have Evade: Phase. * Space: A unit with moves on a Space Path takes a free Move action each turn. * Hyperspace: Units with the Hyperspace movement type have Stealth:1 against units without the Hyperspace movement type. * Gate: Gate Paths can be taken by any unit that can take any Path in the Point. * Secret Ways: Instead of taking the standard Move action, a unit moving along a Secret Ways Path makes a Logistics or other appropriate skill check against the listed difficulty. If successful, the unit arrives in the Path’s destination instantly. A single side may only attempt the check once per Path per battle; if successful, all friendly units that are not Out Of Command may use the Path for the rest of the battle. Units do not need the Secret Ways movement type to use a Secret Ways Path; Secret Ways modifies a normal movement type. Quick Clashes (Fast Mass Combat) Use this method to simplify the system, for example so that parts of the battle the PCs are not involved in can be reduced to the background. Each turn, each unit rolls two dice, plus one per category each its Tactics and Discipline are above Base. The roll is public if the unit is visible. The unit can then take two actions from the list below, based on the comparison between its own total and that of an enemy unit. If an action would normally call for a check, it is automatically successful if the roll allows it and the action does not involve attacks on commanders. (An interval is the standard deviation for six dice.) Any Number * Build Momentum: Add one die to all rolls until the unit takes an action in a category listed below. * Lock Die: Set one die aside. This die is not rolled, and is instead kept at its current value until the unit takes an action in a category listed below. A unit cannot lock more than half its dice. * Claim * Block * Promote * Release * Surrender * Use Ability * Scout * Move * Cut Line * Establish Line * Split * Take Command Matches Target's Roll * Break Momentum: Roll one die. The target removes that many dice added by the Build Momentum action (to a minimum of zero). * Break Preparation: Roll one die. The target must reroll that many dice (or as many as possible, if the roll is higher than the target's number of locked dice) set aside by the Lock Die action, starting with the highest. * Recon: All enemy units with the Stealth special in the Point that have lower rolls are visible until they leave the Point. Beats Target's Roll by One Interval * Punch Through * Break Claim: Remove the target's claim to a Special other than Block. Beats Target's Roll by Two Intervals * Attack * Mop Up Beats Target's Roll by Three Intervals * Decapitate * Break Line: Remove the target's claim to the Block Special. Special These actions require the unit's roll to beat a target number assigned by the GM. * Miscellaneous * Entrench * Raze Adding and Removing Dice Specials, Quiver abilities, and Quandaries can add or remove dice from the roll. In general, modifiers apply as follows: * Mild: One die * Moderate: Two dice * Major: Three dice * Critical: Five dice A unit cannot have its dice reduced below one, nor can it gain more dice than its unmodified pool. Locked dice are removed before rolled dice, with the highest locked dice removed first; the die still remains locked, but is not counted toward the total. Certain other one-time or avoidable events can have their own effects: * Remove a die gained by the Build Momentum action. * Add dice as though by the Build Momentum action. * Return a die set aside by the Lock Die action to the general pool. * Add another die to the dice set aside, matching the highest die rolled this turn. * Take the Lock Die action, setting aside the lowest die rolled this turn. * For this turn only, the Lock Die action sets aside all dice showing a chosen number. Even Quicker Clashes If even this abbreviated system is too slow, roll all dice belonging to each side. Each side can spend its roll down against other sides, spending intervals to do the following to sides with lower raw rolls than its remaining roll. If an action is italicized, the side may spend intervals on it as long as its remaining roll is above zero. Units cannot take the Split action using these rules. One Interval * Move a unit along an unblocked Path. * Take normal actions that do not affect other units. * Lock a die, setting it aside. Do not roll locked dice.You cannot lock more than half your dice. * Unlock a die on the target's side, returning it to the general roll. The same die cannot be both unlocked and locked on the same turn. * Block a Path. Two Intervals * Make all hidden units belonging to the target visible until they leave their Point. This unlocks one locked die, if you have any. * Move a unit along a blocked Path. * Attempt to modify terrain with the Entrench or Raze actions. * Lock or unlock all of your dice showing a single number. You cannot lock more than half your dice. Three Intervals * Damage any one of a unit's Attributes if it is in range of a friendly unit. This unlocks one locked die, if you have any. * Make ten attacks by generic soldiers on all commanders of a unit, if it is in range of a friendly unit. This unlocks one locked die, if you have any. * Remove a unit's claim to any Special. This unlocks one locked die, if you have any. Intervals (Interval is standard deviation for 36 dice.)